DT team make thousands of protective visors for frontline workers

Ipswich School’s Design and
Technology Department joined forces with Northgate High School, Westbourne
Academy and Ipswich Makerspace over the school Easter holidays to produce much
needed protective visors for local essential workers.

In total the teams transformed
over 2,200 projector slides and acetate into PPE visors for local care homes,
community nurses, GPs, hospitals, dentists, pharmacies, community support
groups and ambulance services. All 160
drivers for Ipswich Buses now have a face visor thanks to the partnership with
local craft group, Ipswich Makerspace.

Having family members experience
a lack of PPE, the DT team approached Ivry Street Medical Practice, which is
opposite the school, to find out what could be done to help in the COVID-19
crisis. The medical practice said there was a need for PPE and agreed to test
prototypes made by the school. The DT team found a CAD design online (designed
by Kitronik) that would work with the school’s laser cutter. Staff scoured the
whole school for unused acetates which could be remodelled into PPE visors,
once inserted into polypropylene frames cut on the laser cutter.

Following social media posts, the
school was inundated with requests for PPE particularly from care homes,
pharmacies and community support groups. Thanks to the link with staff at two
state schools in Ipswich – Northgate High School and Westbourne Academy – we
were able to make visors and coordinate materials, requests and deliveries to
help as many groups as possible with donated visors.

Ipswich School DT team and a pupil with the first visors

A team of volunteer drivers including Mr Ross, Ms Caston, Ms Carter, Mrs Catchpole and Mr Morgan worked hard to get the visors to their destinations and school families helped with construction, while the Old Ipswichian Club provided financial support for the production costs and to assist with the smooth running of the laser cutter. The OI and FOIS networks were also instrumental in connecting us to less obvious essential worker organisations that would benefit – pharmacies, Peabody Group and indeed individuals in specific need.

Visor deliveries to Rainbow Pharmacy and Ravenswood Medical Practice

Headmaster Mr Weaver said: “I am proud that our DT department has demonstrated so many of the skills we all learn at school: skills of collaboration, proactivity, creative thinking, adaptability and experimentation.”

He added: “I am also very
proud that as a community we worked together – sharing ideas and materials to
make and deliver this vital equipment. Care is one of the core values of
Ipswich School and this is something we have demonstrated so well through this
project.”

Mrs Clark,
one of the DT teachers involved, said: “Not only were we able to meet a demand
for protective equipment, we were also able to demonstrate how important design
and technology is to our lives. We proved that everything we say in the
classroom can be borne out in a real situation – identify a need, think
creatively, research a solution, test it out and then get making! It was an
exciting project to work on, and who would have thought that spare OHP slides
could be put to such good use!”

Old OHP slides were unearthed around the school, headbands were cut on the laser cutter, and then then protective visors were assembled

The school received many thank you emails from the beneficiaries, including from Ann Mason, from Ann Mason Care, who said: “A big big thank you to Ipswich School staff and pupils for helping us at this challenging time, we are extremely grateful” and from Ashwin Bhatt (OI), from Rainbow Pharmacy, who said: “Thank you for providing us with visors, they are fantastic and we are now protected thanks to the school.” Ipswich MP Tom Hunt also contacted the school, saying: “It is a great credit to the school and to the students involved that you have been able to supply this much needed PPE equipment for local medical workers.”